THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. VIGOROUS SPEECHES IN AUCKLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 29, 4 February 1908, Page 2

THE MOTHER AND THE CHILD. VIGOROUS SPEECHES IN AUCKLAND.

[Bt TELEGBArH.— Special to The Post ] . AUCKLAND, This Day. A vigorous denunciation of tho attitude of some modern women Ipwards maternity was uttered by Dr. Marsack in speaking at tho meeting at Government House in connsction with the formation of an Infant Life Prot action Society. , /'Because New Zealand," he said, "js a very young nation, and because tjhe centres are nox overcrowded the infant mortality in tha Dominion is comparatively low, but the increase in infant mortality throughout the civilised world h to a great extent due to the fact that modern woman is so largely a, slave to pleasure -seeking and society attractions that ahs considers it almost a crime to let her functions of bearing children and rearing them naturally have full stray. Instincts are hereditary, and the one or two artificially brought up children of the modern woman who nas no time for her offspring, if they fortunately escape being puny specimens of humanity, both physically and mentally, are- almost certain to be imbued with t}ie selfishness of their mothers, and if they be girls to act as their mothers acted before them. Ths civilised world must soon wake up to this fact," declared the doctor earnestly, "and must grasp it effectually or God help tho nations which compose it!" Dr. Marsack's audience, which was largely composed of women, heartily applauded his remarks. Dr. Eoberton, in speaking of the society's object: "To ensure prevention of work inimical to health and vitality in factories, etc.," observed that he was not sure" whether the Government included the home in the word "factory," but it was the saddest thing , in a medical man's experience to see the progress of some mothers. Ths young mother, with her first baby, found everything joyful ; then tho socond baby came, the third, and fourth, and life became a drag. The mother's health was not as it was, and she was unable t-o obtain assistance : that last fact must be set down as one of the most serious hardships in a woman's life. . . I hope that in time this society will not only employ nurses, but that it or the Government will ! provide some kind; of district visitors, or district nurses, who will assist mothers at certain times for the good of the children born'or unborn."